Sofia Bodrun
Pronouns:
Research Mentor(s): Adam Rountrey
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Museum of Paleontology /
Program: UROPF
Session: Session 5 (2:40pm – 3:30pm)
Authors: Sofia Bodrun, Adam Rountrey, Philip Gingerich
Abstract
Fossil and genetic evidence show that whales evolved from terrestrial mammals, and the transition from a fully terrestrial to fully aquatic life mode presents a number of questions regarding locomotion, feeding, and reproduction. Here, we focus on swimming mode in one of the earliest fully aquatic whales, Basilosaurus isis. In 2005, a 14-meter-long, 35-million-year-old skeleton of Basilosaurus isis was collected at Wadi Al-Hitan in Egypt. This skeleton is one of the most complete specimens of Basilosaurus in the world, and museum researchers have created casts of all of the bones, as well as CT scans and a low-resolution LIDAR scan of the mounted replica at the Museum of Natural History. The digital representations of this specimen will allow new kinds of analyses, but at the start of this work, the high-resolution CT data from each bone had not yet been placed in anatomical context. Utilizing the LIDAR scan as a blueprint, the high-resolution scans of individual bones were mapped to their appropriate anatomical positions, creating the first highly detailed ‘digital skeletal mount’ of Basilosaurus. As a step toward understanding swimming mode in this species, animations were created using parameters from modern swimming vertebrates. Two proposed modes are depicted 1) dorsoventral undulation of the posterior body and tail and 2) anguilliform (eel-like) lateral undulation along much of the body length. Completing this highly accurate digital 3D skeleton and illustrating proposed swimming modes are critical steps in research on the terrestrial to aquatic transition in whales. The 3D model will be the basis for future locomotion simulations, and it also increases the accessibility of this large, unique specimen to researchers, educators, and the public.
